Shows
Open ThreadsProgrammatic SEO Projects With Josh PigfordI caught up with Josh Pigford today, founder of Maybe, ToolStash, and many other projects. We covered a lot of ground across many of his different projects, but spent the bulk of this chat geeking out about programmatic SEO. The strategy, the technical approach, and exactly what (and how) he built some of his AI-generated content marketing strategies for his projects.We recorded this interview on August 6th, 2024.2024-08-0652 min
The Tuple PodcastJosh Pigford, Creator of Maybe.coIn this episode, Ben interviews Josh Pigford, founder of Maybe.co, about the company’s journey from VC-backed startup -> closed startup -> open source project -> funded open source project. They discuss JavaScript and Rails trade-offs, the challenges of building a personal finance software, and the operational difficulties of building a business based on open source software.LinksTuple.app - The best app for pair programmingMaybe.co - The fintech startup Josh foundedNodeJS - The starting framework for Maybe.coRuby on Rails - The ne...2024-02-2351 min
The Bootstrapped Founder292: Josh Pigford — The Open-Source Transformation of MaybeJosh Pigford (@shpigford), who created Maybe and Baremetrics, talks about bringing his financial tool back to life by making it open-source!This has sparked surprisingly high levels of interest and even investment. Within two weeks.In our chat, we delve into the challenge of building a platform that simplifies financial data, similar to how Zapier simplifies automation, all under public scrutiny. The goal? A community-supported plugin system and a customizable personal finance operating system for every life stage. Josh also discusses considering changing the technology behind his project to Rails, weighing the...2024-02-0749 min
YAGNITesting w/ Josh PigfordMatt and Josh talk about automated testing and try to answer the question "do we need them?"This season of YAGNI was made possible by our friends at Flipper Cloud - Are big launches stressing you out? Then you need feature flags!Flipper Cloud helps your team deploy the code now and then roll out features when you’re good and ready. Get started for free atflippercloud.ioJosh Pigford on Twitter // DetangleMatt Swanson on Twitter // arrows.toWittgenstein's RulerWhy doesn't Stripe have a /mrr endpoint?Gi...2023-11-1443 min
It's Not OverFailing to track expenses, taking a pay cut, aggressive cost-cutting and scrambling towards breakeven - Josh Pigford, BaremetricsAfter taking on investment from Stripe, Josh Pigford realised he was running out of money in a matter of weeks and not months.What followed for Baremetrics was a period of salary cuts, general cost-cutting and a slow march towards break-even, stability and ultimately profitability.As a founder, Josh earned enough goodwill with his team that they didn't up and leave but instead stuck with him and helped move the company forward towards an exit.In this episode of It's Not Over, Josh and I discuss raising money when you aren't trying to...2022-07-0447 min
Clock Speed with Shamus MadanHow This Startup Plans to Replace Financial Planners Using Online Tools w/ Josh Pigford (Founder)In this episode, Shamus Madan talks with Josh Pigford about his new venture, Maybe. They discuss Pigford's background, the goals and business model of Maybe, and how it compares to competitors like Mint and Intuit. They also delve into the benefits of transparency in building Maybe and lessons learned from Pigford's previous business, Baremetrics.
Welcome everyone to another episode of the MBIT Podcast which discusses tech and entrepreneurship. In today’s episode, Josh Pigford joins the pod to discuss his startup Maybe which is a SaaS tool to help others reach financial freedom easier.
Learn More About Ma...2022-04-2513 min
The Usual SaaS-pects with Ch Daniel🏅 34. Josh Pigford (Maybe Finance, Baremetrics)Josh Pigford
Josh Pigford is a serial entrepreneur. He is the creator of Maybe.co, Baremetrics.io, Temper.io, PopSurvey.com, PugSpot, Tiny Farmstead and other little bits of internet stuff. Josh's most recent business is Maybe. Their website reads "In 2021 I founded Maybe where we're helping folks take control of their financial future. I also run Laser Tweets because we all need something ridiculous to do."
——
Links
Maybe Finance: https://maybe.co/
Josh's Twitter: https://twitter.com/Shpigford
Jo...2022-04-2147 min
Startups For the Rest of UsEpisode 544 | Annual Raises, Finding Good Startup People, and More Listener Questions with Josh PigfordIn this episode, Rob Walling is joined by Josh Pigford to answer listener questions, covering topics like annual pay increases, B2B SaaS price increases, white-label vs branded product, and hiring startup-minded people.
The topics we cover
[03:04] Building Maybe, and Rob busts Josh's chops about starting a business so soon
[10:02] Question #1: Annual Raises - Anonymous
[18:24] Question #2: Explaining a Price Increase - Steve McLeod Bootstrap FM
[23:11] Question #3: Free or Discounted Plans in Exchange for Branding - Adam Wohlberg
[29:28] Question #4: Finding startup people to hire - Anonymous
...2021-04-0646 minStartups For the Rest of UsEpisode 534 | A $4M Exit with Josh Pigford of BaremetricsIn this episode, Rob talks with Josh Pigford in a first appearance since the sale of Baremetrics for $4m. They discuss his seven-year journey to build Baremetrics, the details of the sale, and Josh's post-sale, non-software aspirations.
The topics we cover
[02:42] Intros
[04:26] Avoiding capital gains via qualified small business stock.
[09:08] Josh's post-sale purchases and other dramatic life shifts
[13:46] Changes at Baremetrics after sale
[18:32] Weeks of cash to profitable in 8 months
[23:20] Breaking through plateaus and product vs marketing for growth out of plateaus
[30:13] What motivated Josh to start thinking about selling
[32:58] Launching a new feature called Intros...2021-02-0246 min
Build Your SaaSHow coronavirus is impacting revenueThis week, Justin called up Josh Pigford, founder of Baremetrics:Baremetrics does analytics for SaaS companiesI called him up just to get a sense of how this pandemic (and looming recession) has already started to affect different SaaS companiesHe's already noticing some trends: "A lot of SaaS companies are seeing the biggest loss they've seen in the past 4 weeks. I've heard from some companies that are seeing a 10-20% decrease in MRR.""Payroll is the biggest challenge over the next year. Payroll is our biggest expense."How are you going to ride this out?"We use Flight Path +...2020-04-141h 03
Founder Views - Conversations that matter to youJosh Pigford - CEO of Baremetrics, Almost selling the company for $5 million, and what the plans are for the futureI’m speaking with Josh Pigford, CEO and founder of Baremetrics. If you’re in SaaS, you’ve definitely heard of Josh and Baremetrics. Hundreds of SaaS and subscription businesses use Baremetrics to properly display dashboards and metrics to give a real time breakdown of how their company is performing. This is fundamental for every SaaS company, and Baremetrics has been the staple in that department for quite some time.Recently, Josh caused some waves in the SaaS world when he revealed that he almost sold Baremetrics for $5 million, which was a big shock to a lot of peo...2020-04-0738 min
The Product Business19. Josh Pigford - Almost selling Baremetrics for $5mJosh Pigford of Baremetrics talks to me about how he got 90% of the way to selling his business for 5 million dollars, and got ghosted at the last minute. He learned a lot through the process, and he tells all about it. You can read more details in his blog post here.2020-01-2727 min
First Customers2: Josh Pigford, Founder of Baremetrics, a powerful subscription analytics software for SaaS companiesJosh Pigford, the founder of Baremetrics, a company he's grown steadily every year since launching in 2013, and currently generates $1.4 million/year in recurring revenue. Baremetrics customers are made up of over 800 SaaS and subscription businesses that rely on the metrics, dunning, and engagement tools built by Josh and his team. Show notes & links: https://parisvega.com/josh-pigford-baremetrics-subscription-analytics-software/
Topics Covered:
- Creating in public.
- Entrepreneural Experimentation.
- Twitter Sales
(Since this recording, Baremetrics has been acquired.)2019-12-1933 min
Founder’s Journey: Building a Startup from the Ground UpSaving you millions of dollars: asset sale vs stock saleEarlier this year I failed to sell Baremetrics for $5m. But I learned a heaping pile of things from that and one of the biggest things I learned about was the world of asset sales and stock sales. This is about to get real nerdy but this is crucial if you're trying to sell a company. It could literally save you millions of dollars.2019-12-0300 minFounder’s Journey: Building a Startup from the Ground Up5 things I learned failing to sell Baremetrics for $5mI failed to sell Baremetrics for $5m. While failure is 100% a part of success, it's only useful if you learn something. So, here are some of the things I learned from this little failure. Hopefully these are some things you can apply to your own company (present or future) that can save you a bit of pain.2019-12-0300 minFounder’s Journey: Building a Startup from the Ground UpI almost sold Baremetrics for $5mIn the past six years of Baremetrics' existence, I've received dozens upon dozens of emails from folks interested in acquiring Baremetrics. When you're running a transparent company that's growing, it just comes with the territory. Generally these conversations quickly fizzle once they realize I'm not even remotely interested in some quick, 1x revenue sale.2019-12-0300 min
Trouble Makers#3: Open Startups with Josh PigfordJosh Pigford, founder of Baremetrics, discusses his many side projects, when to decide it's time to kill an idea, and the Open Startups movement. In chat with Anne-Laure Le Cunff, founder of Maker Mag. Sponsored by Blockstack.2019-04-2925 minFounder’s Journey: Building a Startup from the Ground UpSunsetting Intros: A post-mortem on shutting down a product we just launchedIntros, a product we launched to great fanfare three months ago, is being shutdown, having never made a single penny and costing our team months of work.
https://baremetrics.com/blog/sunsetting-intros2019-02-2800 minFounder’s Journey: Building a Startup from the Ground UpStaying mentally healthy as a founderYesterday I wasn't feeling great, mentally. I had a level of anxiety I hadn't felt in a long time that started in the morning and really persisted through the night. I can't pinpoint it to any one specific thing. It was more the sum of a dozen small things. I felt like I hadn't been leading the team well through a big product change, parenting has been taxing lately, I was second guessing all sorts of life decisions, the things that typically bring me joy day in and out have just felt really uninteresting and on top of that, t...2019-02-1400 min
Find My Catalyst PodcastJosh Pigford - Founder Baremetrics and Host Founder Chats PodcastGuest - Josh Pigford, Founder of Baremetrics Josh is the host of the Founder Chats podcast, he is an entrepreneur, maker, and the founder of Baremetrics. Josh shares some great experience, perspective, and background. We discuss startups, his founder journey, learning, sleep, and more. Thank you for listening to & sharing the Catalyst Sale Podcast. Questions Addressed Why is it important to be open/transparent with your numbers? How has transparency impacted the way you have built out the Baremetrics team. What compelled Josh to share his absurd list of products, apps, websites, and business? Where does "Lea...2018-10-3035 minCatalyst Sale PodcastJosh Pigford - Founder Baremetrics and Host Founder Chats PodcastGuest - Josh Pigford, Founder of Baremetrics Josh is the host of the Founder Chats podcast, he is an entrepreneur, maker, and the founder of Baremetrics. Josh shares some great experience, perspective, and background. We discuss startups, his founder journey, learning, sleep, and more. Thank you for listening to & sharing the Catalyst Sale Podcast. Questions Addressed Why is it important to be open/transparent with your numbers? How has transparency impacted the way you have built out the Baremetrics team. What compelled Josh to share his absurd list of products, apps, websites, and business? Where does "Lea...2018-10-3035 min
The Food Blogger Pro PodcastInsights and Observations on Starting a Business with Josh PigfordCaring for yourself as an entrepreneur, ignoring data, and being a painkiller with Josh Pigford. ----- Welcome to episode 169 of the Food Blogger Pro podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Josh Pigford from Baremetrics about the lessons he has learned in the 15+ years he’s been building businesses. Insights and Observations on Starting a Business The life of an entrepreneur is always changing, but after 15+ years in the business, you can expect to learn a thing or two. Josh is a self-proclaimed “maker” who “can’t stop making thi...2018-09-2554 min
The Ticket: Discover the Future of Customer Service, Support, and Experience, with IntercomBaremetrics’ Josh Pigford on launching – and pivoting – quicklyOne of the hardest moments of Josh Pigford’s career came with the surprise news that his company, Baremetrics, had just six to eight weeks of runway left. In conversation with Adam Risman, he talks about how to use funding wisely to fuel company growth, the pitfalls to avoid, and the importance of cultivating a team culture that stays resilient in the face of challenges.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.2018-07-2629 min
The Side Hustle ProjectBaremetrics Founder Josh Pigford on Side Projects and Growing a $1 Million SaaS StartupIn today’s episode, we’re talking to Josh Pigford, the founder of Baremetrics—the revenue analytics platform that helps companies better understand their customers, get more accurate forecasting and engage customers with more relevant messaging.2018-06-0700 minFounder’s Journey: Building a Startup from the Ground UpWhy founders need hobbiesAs founders, a lot of our identities get wrapped up in our companies. Certainly within our industries, but even to family and friends it’s how people know us. And over time, we sort of become our companies. Most founders or CEOs are the “face” of their businesses and eventually they’re inseparable. Being wholly consumed by your company hurts not only you and the people around you, but even the company itself.2018-05-0900 min
Everyone Hates Marketers | No-BS Marketing & Brand Strategy Podcast3 Steps to Validating Your Business Idea The Right Way Josh Pigford from BaremetricsHow to validate your business idea, the right way.Marketers have become obsessed with conversion optimization over the last few years.We're trying to squeeze conversions out of each part of our website. But are we forgetting there's another human involved on the other side of the screen?We tackle that topic in today's episode with Josh Pigford, the founder of Baremetrics, a metrics and focusing tool for startups.Josh shared with us his 3-step plan for starting a new business, including how to validate your business idea, where to find your...2018-05-0845 min
Everyone Hates Marketers | No-BS Marketing & Brand Strategy PodcastHow to Validate Your Business Idea in 3 Steps (The Right Way) with Josh Pigford at BaremeticsI’m so f*cking happy to announce that my book, Stand The F*ck Out, is officially available for PURCHASE! To buy the book—and more!—DIRECTLY from us and support our small business, go to: book.stfo.ioFree Shipping Worldwide • Ripped Apart by 70+ Marketers • Money-Back Guarantee • Secure Online Payment***How to validate your business idea, the right way.Marketers have become obsessed with conversion optimization over the last few years.We're trying to squeeze conversions out of each part of our website. But are we forgetting th...2018-05-0848 minFounder’s Journey: Building a Startup from the Ground UpHow to identify your perfect customerA couple of years ago, we were in a hard spot. I had just realized we were mere weeks away from running out of cash and had asked the whole team to take a pay cut while we figured out how to get profitable. But in addition to cutting costs, we needed to figure out how to speed up growth. One of the things we did to speed up growth was figure out who our “perfect customer” was. We’d spent the first two years making some big assumptions about who our ideal customer was and who we should target...2018-04-0400 minFounder’s Journey: Building a Startup from the Ground UpNo, that thing is not a big dealWhen you’re just getting started, everything feels like a big deal. Everything. The tinniest things can turn in to huge showstoppers that drain time and, in many cases, money. But the longer you’re in the game, the more you realize how few things actually matter.2018-03-1400 minFounder’s Journey: Building a Startup from the Ground UpWhy we transitioned from Medium back to our own blogWhere to publish something has becoming a difficult decision for a lot of businesses. You read so many stories about using various channels to distribute content and grow traffic, it's hard to know what does and doesn't work. Medium, in particular, has become a major player in the world of startup content, but is it really that great?
https://baremetrics.com/blog/medium-back-to-blog2018-01-2400 minFounder’s Journey: Building a Startup from the Ground UpDon’t let personal health take a backseat in your company cultureWhen building a startup, so much emphasis is put on “the product” or even “the customers”. Everything else takes a backseat. On some level, and at some points in a company’s lifecycle, this makes sense. Of course you’ll make sacrifices and you’ll have to work really hard and work really weird hours.
But eventually, you’ll have to stop. The downsides far outweigh the benefits and the damage done to you and your team can be detrimental. That’s what I’m writing about to day. Managing the long term health of you and your team.
ht...2018-01-1000 min
UI Breakfast: UI/UX Design and Product StrategyEpisode 89: SaaS vs Ecommerce with Josh PigfordHow much do SaaS and ecommerce have in common? Today our guest is Josh Pigford, the founder of Baremetrics, who has lately moved into ecommerce. Josh talks about his background with products, shares the story of his new business, and how it helps him flex his creative (and entrepreneurial) muscle.
Podcast feed: subscribe to http://simplecast.fm/podcasts/1441/rss in your favorite podcast app, and follow us on iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play Music.
Show Notes
Baremetrics — Josh's SaaS company
Cedar & Sail — Josh's ecommerce business we're talking about
Giga Omni Media Acquires TheAppleBlog (2008)
Josh's webs...2018-01-0433 minFounder’s Journey: Building a Startup from the Ground UpEverybody’s winging itLast week I hit some sort of boiling point with life and work. July was an incredibly stressful month for me both, personally and with work. Just lots of extremes, and it wore me down.
Every single founder is struggling with something. Maybe it's big, maybe it's not. But there's always something. Even the most successful founders deal with this stuff and don't know what to do.
Everybody’s winging it.
https://baremetrics.com/blog/winging-it2017-08-1600 min
The Parentpreneur Accelerator Podcast010: Josh Pigford - how to retain customers to build a profitable business In episode 010, I interview Josh Pigford, the founder of baremetrics - a software business that helps other subscription businesses to analyse their growth and churn data. He has grown his business from nothing in 2013 to over $80,000 revenue per month. Josh also writes one of my favourite blogs in which he is super-transparent about his experiences as an entrepreneur, including how he 'escaped the startup rat race', by no longer supporting growth through funding but instead doing it by becoming profitable. In our discussion, we discuss how to define your own success, the common misconceptions around subscription business model, the...2017-07-2600 min
Secrets for ScalingJosh Pigford of Baremetrics on cutting through the startup hype to grow a sustainable businessJosh Pigford of Baremetrics shares his lessons in goal setting and focus as a founder, patience, sustainable growth, branding, and what’s next for the company.2017-07-0500 min
The Yonder PodcastEp 17: Baremetrics' Josh PigfordBaremetrics founder, Josh Pigford, joins Jeff Robbins to talk about growing his distributed ecommerce analytics company. Josh talks about running a company without email and very few meetings.2017-06-2200 minFounder’s Journey: Building a Startup from the Ground UpNavigating the long, slow SaaS ramp of deathThere can be some really exciting days when you’re building a SaaS company, but the large majority are a slog. Just one foot in front of the other, slowly trudging your way up the hill in the muck. The hockey-stick growth you’ve envisioned feels laughably far away. Amazingly, you are growing every month, but it’s just…so…tedious. This, my friends, is the long, slow SaaS ramp of death. It’s perfectly normal and par for the course for the large majority of SaaS companies.
Check it out! https://baremetrics.com/blog/long-slow-saas-ramp-of-death2017-06-2100 min
Startup TipsStartup Tip #15: Fight the urge to spin more platesStartup Tip #15: Fight the urge to spin more plates
https://baremetrics.com2017-06-1600 minFounder’s Journey: Building a Startup from the Ground UpBeing a Solo Founder: Pros, Cons, Tips & TricksFounding a company is hard. You’ve got an infinite number of decisions to make while simultaneously trying to catch lightning in a bottle with creating something out of nothing. It’s even harder when you’re doing it alone.
Being a solo founder, in many ways, stacks the deck against you. You’re left shouldering the weight of every single decision and don’t really have any one to share it with. However, there are some ways to make it easier and, in many cases, it can actually be a major pro to start a company solo.
...2017-06-1400 minFounder’s Journey: Building a Startup from the Ground UpMost startups are not “crushing” ithttps://baremetrics.com/blog/most-startups-are-not-crushing-it
Ask any startup founder how things are going and they’ll tell you it’s “going great”. They’ll talk about some new feature they’re rolling out, or a new round of funding. Or maybe they’ll mention how much user growth they’ve had or that they just got covered in TechCrunch. All signs will point to “crushing it”.
But, for better or worse, there’s a very high probability that they are, in fact, not crushing it. The exact opposite, actually.
We’ve conditioned ourselves to fake it until we make...2017-05-1700 min
Startup TipsStartup Tip #14: Hire slowly & methodicallyStartup Tip #14: Hire slowly & methodically
https://baremetrics.com2017-04-2100 min
The Startup Success PodcastSSP 3.38 - Josh Pigford Bob and Patrick speak with Josh Pigford of Baremetrics2017-04-1800 min
Startup TipsStartup Tip #13: Hire a nerdStartup Tip #13: Hire a nerd
https://baremetrics.com2017-04-1400 minFounder’s Journey: Building a Startup from the Ground UpStartups: Keep It Classyhttps://blog.baremetrics.com/startups-keep-it-classy-5bba13285cc6
Building a business makes relatively sane humans do some insane things. The past 10 years have been the modern day gold rush for tech. And I mean that in the sense where lots of people risk everything and make nothing while a few hit it big.
And that “gold rush” culture makes people do some desperate things in the name of business survival.
Every day founders have an infinite number of tiny decisions to make and it’s easy to get decisions fatigue. In a moment of weakne...2017-04-1200 minFounder’s Journey: Building a Startup from the Ground UpThe startup echo chamber is making you deafhttps://blog.baremetrics.com/the-startup-echo-chamber-is-making-you-deaf-771eec220181
Being an entrepreneur is a lonely place, especially if you’re the founder/CEO. Sure, you may have co-founders, but the reality is, there’s a lot of weight on your shoulders, a lot of pressure (self-applied or otherwise) to not drop the ball.
To combat this, we’re basically permanently in “problem solver” mode. Everything needs a solution. Which is a natural fit because most entrepreneurs are self-taught and love to learn!
“The widget sales page isn’t converting? Well how about imma throw myself in to a hole and...2017-03-2300 min
Indie Hackers#006 – Launching Your Product and Finding Customers Immediately with Josh Pigford of BaremetricsJosh Pigford went from having an idea to having paying customers in eight days. Less than six months later he was making $14,000/month. In this episode, you'll learn exactly how he did it. Brought to you by SparkPost.2017-03-0844 minFounder’s Journey: Building a Startup from the Ground UpGetting out of the startup rat racehttps://blog.baremetrics.com/getting-out-of-the-startup-rat-race-66a5a0ca3055
I’m done. I’m tapping out. I’m bowing out of the startup rat race. No, we’re not shutting down Baremetrics. Very much the opposite. I’m just finished subscribing to and following the traditional startup mentality as we build our company.
In June 2016, I realized we had less than two months of runway left. We had an existential crisis on our hands, the kind that you’ve read about hundreds of times. The kind where the business was there one day, then all of the sudden j...2017-02-0100 minFounder’s Journey: Building a Startup from the Ground UpHow removing self-serve cancellations saved our business (and why it’s not as evil as you think)https://baremetrics.com/blog/self-serve-cancellations-saved-our-business
There may be no topic in the world of business that spurs such impassioned responses than self-serve versus manual cancellation of a subscription. Let’s just say the word “evil” gets tossed around a lot.
There’s a lot that gets overlooked in the conversation about this, so I want to walk through the different sides of the arguments for/against and try to keep things as rational as possible. I sincerely want to have a constructive conversation about this topic as I believe there are in fact scenarios and reasons...2017-01-1800 min
Starting & SustainingJosh Pigford, Founder of BaremetricsJosh and I discussed bootstrapping, accepting outside money, the drawbacks of hiring too fast and having to ask his team to take a pay cut. We also talk about how metrics simply aren't important in the early days and how nothing beats spending time to talking to your customers in person.Special Guest: Josh Pigford.Sponsored By:Starting & Sustaining: The second edition of Starting & Sustaining will be out in late 2017. Visit the site to get on the list and be the first to know as well as receive a launch discount.Links:...2017-01-1537 minFounder’s Journey: Building a Startup from the Ground UpCalculate what feature to build nexthttps://baremetrics.com/blog/feature-framework
“What feature should we build next?” Ain’t that the question of the year? While that next feature won’t save your business, it’s still important to actually improve your product and create more value for your customers. And figuring out what you should tackle next may be one of the hardest decisions you make on a regular basis.
Most founders (heck, most people) are overflowing with ideas. The problem is, most ideas are, you know…terrible. But they seem great right when you have them.
Mix an overflow...2016-10-0500 minFounder’s Journey: Building a Startup from the Ground UpOur system for scoring & prioritizing every marketing ideahttps://baremetrics.com/blog/marketing-idea-scoring-system
What if you could put a system in place that instantly scores and prioritizes any marketing idea you had? You could focus in on exactly the strategies that are most likely bring you a return on your effort while minimizing costs and increasing impact. #synergy amirite?!?
Lucky for you, we’ve got a system for doing just that, and I’ll walk you through how to set it up and get going today!
The implementation of this is in a Google Spreadsheet, which you’ll want to make a copy...2016-09-1400 min
Startup TipsStartup Tip #12: Become part of the company workflowStartup Tip #12: Become part of the company workflow
https://baremetrics.com2016-09-1300 minFounder’s Journey: Building a Startup from the Ground UpThat new feature will not save your businesshttps://baremetrics.com/blog/new-features-will-not-save-your-business
As a founder, you ooze optimism. It’s a necessary coping mechanism to deal with the volatile up’s and down’s of creating something out of nothing. But that becomes problematic when you’re still finding product/market fit as it makes you believe that next feature will be the feature that solves all of your product’s problems. It won’t.
Andrew Chen calls this the Next Feature Fallacy.
Above is a chart of our Monthly Recurring Revenue since the beginning of Baremetrics’ existence nearly three years ago alon...2016-09-0700 min
Startup TipsStartup Tip #11: Use ad retargeting to convert visitorsStartup Tip #11: Use ad retargeting to convert visitors
https://baremetrics.com2016-09-0600 minFounder’s Journey: Building a Startup from the Ground UpOur 7 day launch sequence for announcing anythinghttps://baremetrics.com/blog/product-launch-sequence
Our 7 day launch sequence for announcing anything
If you launch something on the internet and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? I know. Deep. But seriously, how do you launch/release/announce/publish something and make sure people do in fact hear?
Here at Baremetrics we have a launch sequence that we use variations of for basically anything we put out: articles, products, features, news…anything. It’s a repeatable set of steps done over 7 days and one we’ve been optimizing over t...2016-08-3100 min
Startup TipsStartup Tip #10: Ship fast & frequentlyStartup Tip #10: Ship fast & frequently
https://baremetrics.com2016-08-3000 min
Startup TipsStartup Tip #9: Never offer “unlimited” plansStartup Tip #9: Never offer “unlimited” plans
https://baremetrics.com2016-08-2300 minFounder’s Journey: Building a Startup from the Ground UpHow we increased annual upgrades by 30%When you’re building a business based on recurring revenue, what you want is predictability. The “recurring” part has a pretty strong measure of that, but getting more of that recurring payment upfront reduces churn and improves cashflow, letting you spend more money now to acquire customers faster.
Most companies are very low-touch with annual plans. It’s offered as an option on pricing pages, and that’s usually where it’s left. But you can drastically improve conversions to annual plans by having a slightly higher touch option.
What we see a lot of companies do...2016-08-1700 min
Startup TipsStartup Tip #8: Charge moreStartup Tip #8: Charge more
https://baremetrics.com2016-08-1600 min
Startup TipsStartup Tip #7: Don’t fake progress with busy workStartup Tip #7: Don’t fake progress with busy work
https://baremetrics.com2016-08-0900 min
Startup TipsStartup Tip #6: Don’t wait to delegateStartup Tip #6: Don’t wait to delegate
https://baremetrics.com2016-08-0200 min
Startup TipsStartup Tip #5: Stop chasing the competitionStartup Tip #5: Stop chasing the competition
https://baremetrics.com2016-07-2600 min
Startup TipsStartup Tip #4: Stop trying to attain the perfect productStartup Tip #4: Stop trying to attain the perfect product
https://baremetrics.com2016-07-2200 minFounder’s Journey: Building a Startup from the Ground UpThe importance of reflection: How writing monthly updates improves our businesshttps://baremetrics.com/blog/reflection-business-updates
It’s easy to focus on forward momentum. Looking to the future naturally has an optimistic flair and so we spend more time thinking about it and planning it out. But if we don’t stop to reflect on the past, we’ll miss out on things we could learn. Mistakes that we could, inadvertently, be repeating and best practices that we might fail to adopt.
I don’t spend a lot of time reflecting on the past, but once a month I sit down and spend a morning writing out a bu...2016-07-2000 min
Startup TipsStartup Tip #3: Charge from day oneStartup Tip #3: Charge from day one
https://baremetrics.com2016-07-1800 min
Startup TipsStartup Tip #2: Price for the customers you wantStartup Tip #2: Price for the customers you want
https://baremetrics.com2016-07-1200 min
Startup TipsStartup Tip #1: Don't leave money on the table with failing chargesStartup Tip #1: Don't leave money on the table with failing charges!
https://baremetrics.com2016-07-0700 minFounder’s Journey: Building a Startup from the Ground UpHow to write a startup culture manifestoWhen I hear the words “company culture” my gut reaction is generally to contort my face in some way that conveys “Ewwwwwwww”. It’s just one of those buzz phrases that gets thrown around without anyone knowing what it actually means. But as our team has grown and my role has changed, I’ve been able to step back and spend more time looking at the big picture.
As I began to look at what other companies and founders had to say on the topic, I decided it’d be a healthy exercise to actually try to define what “c...2016-07-0600 minFounder’s Journey: Building a Startup from the Ground UpEmbiggening the Mission: We now support Recurly & BraintreeToday we’re launching the biggest update in Baremetrics history: we’re expanding our platform to support Braintree and Recurly, in addition to the Stripe support we’ve always had (with more data sources on the way!).
A chapter I didn’t plan on writing
One of the most interesting parts of being an entrepreneur is the constant evolution. So much of my role is just putting things in motion. It’s sort of like pushing a snowball down a hill. Maybe it gets huge. Maybe it crumbles before it gets to the bottom. Maybe it makes i...2016-06-2800 min
Product PeopleEP79: Josh Pigford - "We're all winging it"Josh is the founder of Baremetrics. But he's also just a normal guy. When a relatively well known investor chastised him, it stung.How does he deal with scrutiny?Most companies aren’t doing nearly as well as you think they are. 90% of the time that startup that you look up to, envy and try to mimic…they are in fact NOT crushing it.Show notesJosh Pigford on Twitter: @ShpigfordBaremetricsJosh's tweetstorm on transparency + criticismJustin's new book: JoltPodcast: Sleep With MeBaremetrics: Open StartupsTheme music: Striker-Metal.com
🎙️ Podcast hosting is provided...2016-06-211h 02
Product PeopleEP79: Josh Pigford - "We're all winging it"Josh is the founder of Baremetrics. But he's also just a normal guy. When a relatively well known investor chastised him, it stung.
How does he deal with scrutiny?
Most companies aren’t doing nearly as well as you think they are. 90% of the time that startup that you look up to, envy and try to mimic…they are in fact NOT crushing it.
Show notes
Josh Pigford on Twitter: @Shpigford
Baremetrics
Josh's tweetstorm on transparency + criticism
Justin's new book: Jolt
Podcast: Sleep With Me
Baremetrics: Open Startups
Theme music: Striker-Metal.com
2016-06-211h 01Founder’s Journey: Building a Startup from the Ground UpHow we’re fixing “unlimited” vacationIt’s a common startup benefit to have a “loose” or “unlimited” vacation policy. “Take all the time off you need!” “We don’t babysit you, take off whenever you need off!” But does anyone actually take off any more time than if they were working somewhere that had a “strict” or “limited” vacation policy?
My hunch was that if we said we had unlimited vacation then the lack of limits would prevent anyone from actually taking off enough time. They’d self-impose boundaries and instead end up taking off a lot less time than they should.
And it turns out, my hun...2016-05-0400 minFounder’s Journey: Building a Startup from the Ground UpRemote Hiring: Our 5-step Interview ProcessYou’ve plastered your job listing on every job board and social network known to man. Now comes the fun part: sifting through the hundreds or even thousands of applications. But how? How do you narrow down a seemingly endless stream of folks who all want to be a part of your team?
Baremetrics is a remote company. We have no main office. We use Earth Class Mail to scan, process and store all of our incoming mail. We all work from a mixture of coffee shops and home offices. Most of us only actually meet in pe...2016-04-2700 minFounder’s Journey: Building a Startup from the Ground UpThe Impossibility of Separating Work & LifeThere’s a lot of talk about “work/life balance” and figuring out how to find some sort of perfect equilibrium wherein your personal life is completely divided from your work building a startup. This is not about that. In fact, it’s about the opposite. It’s about accepting they can’t possibly be separated, and that perfect equilibrium doesn’t exist.
However, it’s not all doom and gloom. There are quite a few ways to help mentally process and sort through running your own business in a way that’s actually healthy for you and those around y...2016-04-1300 minFounder’s Journey: Building a Startup from the Ground Up10 common mistakes founders makehttps://baremetrics.com/blog/founder-mistakes
Bless our little founder hearts. We’re eternal optimists who have great intentions paired with a propensity to try things that common sense would say is a bad idea. That means we try a lot of things, most of which don’t pan out. But it’s the things that do pan out that keep us motivated.
Having talked to and seen the businesses of thousands of entrepreneurs, there are a few mistakes I’ve seen crop up regularly. You should always keep trying things that likely won’t pan out…but at...2016-04-0600 minFounder’s Journey: Building a Startup from the Ground UpWhy we’re changing how we calculate metricsWe just rolled out a change to Buffer’s very public revenue dashboard that resulted in a $25,000 increase in MRR. This article provides some backstory in to how we originally calculated metrics and the transition to a greatly improved version of metric calculation we’ve been building over the past year._
Very few things in life are black & white, but we so desperately want them to be. Life’s just easier when the choices are obvious. And that certainly holds true with entrepreneurship.
Every day you’re faced with hundreds, if not thousands, of choices...2016-01-1400 minFounder’s Journey: Building a Startup from the Ground UpHow we generated a $14,000 influx of cash in 7 daysWhen you’re building a business, cash is king. Cash lets you do things like hiring and customer acquisition, and the more of it you’ve got at any given time, the faster (theoretically) you can grow. We recently tried something that got us an extra $14,000 in cash in seven days. Let’s take a look at how we did it.
So, what’s great about subscription businesses is the relative stability. You get a steady-ish stream of revenue that slowly increases over time and is much less susceptible to the whims of other business models that are base...2015-12-0900 minFounder’s Journey: Building a Startup from the Ground UpHow freemium nearly caused our business to implodeThree months ago, we introduced a Free plan…and it nearly brought Baremetrics to its knees. Let’s take a look at what we did, how it affected our business and how it was ultimately a failure.
When I first built and launched Baremetrics over two years ago, I charged from day 1. No free plan and no trial. You signed up with a credit card and were charged real actual money. Not happy? No sweat, we had a 60 day money back guarantee.
We kept this setup for almost two years and grew the business from $0 to o...2015-11-1000 min
The Growth Hacking & Product Growth PodcastJosh Pigford: From 0 to $10k in 6 Months with BaremetricsJosh Pigford is the founder of Baremetrics, an analytics tool for businesses on Stripe, which he took from $0 to $300,000 in the first year.
Remember to download our 10- day Growth Hacking course for free at https://www.growthhackingpodcast.com/freecourseFor more information and resources, visit https://www.growthhackingpodcast.com2015-08-2716 minFounder’s Journey: Building a Startup from the Ground UpHow to use customer feedback to drive your businessWhile customer feedback is crucial to your startup, it’s also something most founders have a love/hate relationship with. How do you decide if feedback is valuable or not? How do you keep complaints from dragging you down? Where do you draw the line on letting feedback steer your company?
We’ll take a look at answers to those questions, along with a story and announcement about how customer feedback is directly changing a core part of Baremetrics.
Types of feedback
There are two types of feedback you should be collecting: solicited and...2015-07-0800 minFounder’s Journey: Building a Startup from the Ground UpMaker to Manager: What a startup founder doesI’ve long considered myself a “maker”. Heck, it’s the first word in my Twitter profile, so you know it’s official. I’ve been making things for the web since the late 90’s. When I was splitting my time between building my own products and doing consulting, I’d tout myself as the guy who could do everything. I took pride in my ability to do design, frontend, and backend, selling myself as the quintessential “maker of things”.
Then, Baremetrics started taking off. I quickly realized that being the only “maker” wasn’t going to cut it, and started hiring...2015-06-2400 minFounder’s Journey: Building a Startup from the Ground UpHow to Deal with Competition (or Not)As an entrepreneur, one of the biggest sources of stress you have with your startup is likely your competition. It’s easy to become really paranoid about each move they make, each feature they launch and each piece of content they’re publishing. Everything can feel like it’s aimed directly at burning your castle to the ground. So how do you deal with that? Or do you even deal with it at all?
A competitive change of mind
Back in 2008 I built a hosted ad serving platform. Publishers could sell, manage and serve ads and I’...2015-06-1800 min
Hack The EntrepreneurJosh Pigford on Shipping, Hiring Smart People, and Not Being Epically WrongMy guest today is a self-proclaimed maker — but I would call him an entrepreneur, writer, designer, developer and master marketer.
My guest has been developing and shipping products online for over 10 years now and has seen his share of successes and not-so-successful ventures. He is currently the founder of Baremetrics, software analytics and reporting for Stripe. Baremetrics seemingly came out of nowhere with an awesome content marketing strategy lead by my guest on the Baremetrics blog — one of the best software business blogs on the internet today. Now, let’s hack… Josh Pigford. In this 26-minute episode Josh Pig...2015-05-2526 minFounder’s Journey: Building a Startup from the Ground Up3 things we did to reduce churn by 68%If recurring revenue is a rainbow leading to a pot of gold, then churn is the dirty leprechaun trying to keep it all from you.
Okay, so my rainbow leprechaun metaphor is a little weak, but you get the idea. SaaS products are amazing because of how recurring revenue has a compounding affect. That $100/mo customer keeps paying…over and over again. Until they don’t. And that’s where churn comes in and why it’s so vicious to the growth of a company.
I’ve written before about how to reduce churn in SaaS, so I...2015-05-0600 minFounder’s Journey: Building a Startup from the Ground UpBuild vs. Buy: How to blow $100,000 saving moneyWhen you’re just getting started and you’re strapped for cash, you typically do all sorts of things to pinch pennies. It’s just part of surviving, and it’s a healthy thing to do when you’re not actually making any money. The danger, however, is keeping that mindset after you’ve got a steady stream of cash flowing.
It’s a danger that creeps in to a lot of startups and never goes away, causing generally sane people to do insane things in the name of not spending money.
How the story goes
Y...2015-04-2900 minFounder’s Journey: Building a Startup from the Ground UpHow to organize the daily chaos of running a startupAs a Founder, you’ve got your hand in everything imaginable, from legal paperwork to hiring to product management to support and everything in between. You’re pulled in every direction from everyone who’s got your contact info and you feel obligated to chase every rabbit you think of. But one of the hardest lessons to learn is that “busy” does not equal “productive.”
All of those random things you’ve got your hand in, all of those rabbits you chase in the name of “traction” aren’t necessarily the most important things to be working on right then. And tha...2015-04-0800 minFounder’s Journey: Building a Startup from the Ground UpThe Startup Guide to 1-on-1'shttps://baremetrics.com/blog/startup-guide-to-1-on-1
If there’s one thing I’ve found to be true over the past year and half of building this company, it’s that I’m completely winging it. Sure, I’ve read articles and books on how to build a company, but I've never actually done this before and I learn best by doing. So, every time I come across something that works for us, it’s a huge win for me. Doing 1-on-1’s has been one of those huge wins.
A few months after I started building our t...2015-04-0100 min
The SaaS Podcast - SaaS, Startups, Growth Hacking & Entrepreneurship049: How to Generate $30,000 a Month in Revenue from Content Marketing - with Josh PigfordJosh Pigford is the founder of Baremetrics, a product that provides SaaS analytics for Stripe. Josh founded the company in Oct 2013 when he built and launched the first version of the product in just 8 days and within 8 weeks he was already doing about $2000 in monthly recurring revenue. In this episode we get tactical and learn how Josh uses content marketing as the primary channel for acquiring new customers.2015-03-1226 min
The SaaS Podcast - SaaS, Startups, Growth Hacking & Entrepreneurship049 How To Generate $30,000 A Month In Revenue From Content Marketing - With Josh PigfordJosh Pigford is the founder of Baremetrics, a product that provides SaaS analytics for Stripe. Josh founded the company in Oct 2013 when he built and launched the first version of the product in just 8 days and within 8 weeks he was already doing about $2000 in monthly recurring revenue. In this episode, we get tactical and learn how Josh uses content marketing as the primary channel for acquiring new customers.Links, Resources & People Mentioned
Baremetrics - @Baremetrics
Stripe - @stripe
Ulysses - @ulyssesapp
Buffer - @buffer
Josh Pigford - @Shpigford | josh [at] baremetrics [dot] com
...2015-03-1129 minThe SaaS Podcast - SaaS, Startups, Growth Hacking & Entrepreneurship048: How to Take Your Business from $0 to $30,000 a Month in Recurring Revenue - with Josh PigfordJosh Pigford is the founder of Baremetrics, a product that provides SaaS analytics for Stripe. Josh founded the company in Oct 2013 when he built and launched the first version of the product in just 8 days and within 8 weeks he was already doing about $2000 in monthly recurring revenue. In this episode, we explore how Josh took his business from $0 to $30,000 per month in recurring revenue.2015-03-1029 minThe SaaS Podcast - SaaS, Startups, Growth Hacking & Entrepreneurship048 How To Take Your Business From $0 To $30,000 A Month In Recurring Revenue - With Josh PigfordJosh Pigford is the founder of Baremetrics, a product that provides SaaS analytics for Stripe. Josh founded the company in Oct 2013 when he built and launched the first version of the product in just 8 days and within 8 weeks he was already doing about $2000 in monthly recurring revenue. In this episode, we explore how Josh took his business from $0 to $30,000 per month in recurring revenue.Links, Resources & People Mentioned
Baremetrics - @Baremetrics
Stripe - @stripe
Josh Pigford - @Shpigford | josh [at] baremetrics [dot] com
Omer Khan - @omerkhan
Enjoyed this...2015-03-0931 minFounder’s Journey: Building a Startup from the Ground UpWhy we spent $250,000 in 120 days (and the mistakes we made)A few weeks back I wrote about our experience going from bootstrapped to funded as we raised a $500,000 round, why it was good for our business and some of the things we’ve learned along the way. Now, I want to give you an in-depth breakdown of why and how we spent $250,000 in the months after receiving our funding.
The purpose of this post is to give some insight into the costs of a small team building a startup. Maybe there are places you’ll realize you’re spending too much, or areas where you could stand to spe...2015-02-1100 minFounder’s Journey: Building a Startup from the Ground UpThe Fallacy of MotivationMost days now I wake up before my alarm goes off (at 5am) and I immediately hop out of bed, excited to get the day started. But that wasn’t always the case, especially when things weren’t going so well. It’s easy to be excited when the skies are blue, but what about when they’re gray? How do you stay motivated then? Or is there even such thing as “motivation”?
For 10 years I was on a perpetual journey to kick the consulting habit and just focus on my own products, but minus a few 3-month spans...2015-02-0400 minFounder’s Journey: Building a Startup from the Ground UpHow to Pull Off a Startup RetreatIn mid-January we did our first retreat as a team. Since we’re completely remote, this was the first time most of our team had met and worked with each other face-to-face. I’ll take you through how we planned and budgeted for the trip, what we did, what worked and what didn’t.
https://baremetrics.io/blog/startup-retreat
Why do a retreat at all?
Since growing our team from little ol' me to 6 people, with the exception of me meeting a couple of our team members, no one else had ever done more t...2015-01-2900 min